Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII is the third and final entry in the Final Fantasy XIII series. It is also the last Final Fantasy game for the seventh generation of consoles. As the title suggests, it features the return of Lightning as the protagonist. The biggest gameplay mechanic in the game, and is often its biggest criticism, is the time limit. An onscreen clock constantly ticks away, counting down the day. You're allowed a limited number of in-game days to do whatever you want and time only stops while you have the game paused or you're in the menu. It's quite annoying as even standing still will cause the time to continually run. The battle system is revamped since the only party member is Lightning herself. That said, there will be certain moments in the game where a second party member will join. Lightning can change garbs similar to Dresspheres from Final Fantasy X-2. Players have access to Schemata, the system allowing the player to customize the garbs (i.e. outfit), shield, sword, accessories and adornments. Each piece of equipment has different stats, passive abilities and attacks. You are allowed to map different attacks to the face buttons to use during battle.
Customizable options include aesthetics attachments and changing the color of each outfit. It's surprising at the extent of the customization you have and it is all reflected within the game as the only pre-rendered cutscenes (and thus, the predetermined outfit on screen) are the first and last scenes. During battle, each schemata has a separate ATB bar which depletes whenever an action takes place. You can switch schemata at any time. The ATB bar charges whenever it is not in use and charges faster if you're not using the schemata at that time. Thus, you need to manage your ATB bar well, e.g. unleashing a chain of attacks in a row, or pace yourself such that you never run out of ATB. Attacks are mapped to each of the face buttons, you can hold down a face button to continuously use that attack. You can customize which attacks map to which face button to a certain degree depending on the number of free slots a particular garb has, as garbs may have locked abilities. Lightning can move slowly across the battlefield to get out of the reach of monsters, use items and use special abilities such as slow down time significantly or additional attacks. The battle system of having Lightning as the only party member makes it slightly more boring and less fun than the Paradigm System.
The battle system feels like such a huge deviation from the two games before it and lacks the strategy of having multiple party members, such as juggling between healing, buffs, debuffs and attacks. That being said, it is still a fun battle system once you get the hang of it. Outside of the battles, Lightning can sprint, climb ladders, jump and slash. These add some gameplay variety but are superficial and limited in execution. You do not need platforming segments in a JRPG yet Lightning Returns features some. Enemies spawn in the environments so it is semi-random and you can either run away or attack. Attacking an enemy early automatically reduces the enemies' health at the start of battle. The developers made a weird decision in regards to the leveling system. You do not earn experience points by fighting monsters. Stat boosts only come from completing quests, which is lame. Fighting monsters will still give you items and gil (money) though so it isn't a total of waste of time. The game is heavily quest based. You will spend all of your time talking to NPCs accepting quests, and then travelling around to fulfil the requirements. Some of the quests are quite unorthodox though and hard to decipher what to do next. Having a time limit doesn't help in that regard. While there are some decent quests there are your fair few mundane ones such as chasing sheep into a pen or the multitude of fetch quests. These quests may also be time dependent, with NPCs appearing only at certain times. These restrictions can be annoying and frustrating.
However, the neat aspect of the time mechanic is that as each in-game day goes on, the amount of people mulling about on the streets changes which really makes it seem that time is flowing and people are living their normal lives. The lighting will also change as you go from dawn to morning to afternoon to night. Superbosses are great fun and it emphasizes the strategic elements of the battle system despite the focus on action. You need to develop your own strategy and finally triumphing is a great feeling. Lightning Returns takes place in four main areas, each of which are large and filled with plenty of things to explore. It continues to have the great graphics from the previous two games but environments seem bland which makes the game look grittier and less fantasy. Music from the first two games is also reused but it makes for a lot of variety. There are a handful of new or rearranged tracks. The story is set 500 years after the end of XIII-2, where chaos was released to the world and time has stopped. Everyone does not age, which also explains why you see the same characters from the first two games, even though they should be long dead. However, new life also does not come, people can still die from accidents and sickness, and the world is nearing its end.
In the plot, Lightning arrives as the Savior and must save as many souls as she can. She only has 8 days in the beginning but by completing quests, you can extend this time to 14 days. Lightning Returns is extremely non-linear, you have complete freedom 30 minutes into the game, but this also causes the story to lose focus. The plot is a mess and even worse than XIII-2. Lightning ends up being emotionless and while she isn't unlikeable, there's not a whole much to like her either. The plot ends up becoming bland and pointless. The game tries to play with too many characters so it cannot dive deeper into their feelings and rationales. The game has a poor ending where the characters do not develop. The story twist at the end was a slight redeeming factor as was the antagonist's reasoning in the end. It can be confusing at what the writers were trying to convey. The biggest rift was how the plot felt such a huge change from XIII that it's hard to believe they are part of the same series. At least the ending closed off the whole series. Overall, Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII is not a horrible game but it feels lackluster. There is plenty of content but the time pressure, odd non-linear direction and disjointed plot drags it down. Lightning Returns is only worth playing if you enjoyed XIII and XIII-2.
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